I watched Les amants du pont neuf(the lovers on the bridge) just out of curiosity and instantly fell in love with the style! Seriously those were one of the best films in the history of cinema.
Not bad but quite a few errors and omissions. Firstly, it’s impossible now to recreate the impact these films made on younger people at the time. They blew away everything that had come before especially in terms of what was considered worthy: slow build up, grimy realism, pedestrian values. These films were gorgeous to look at and edited for impact & pace in a completely new way. With sly humour and above all, attitude. Their biggest influence were the underground bandes dessinés from the 1980s which culminated in commercial compilations like Metal Hurlant. Worth also mentioning other non-French directors were doing similar things - such as Run Lola Run. Nowadays they just seem very dated but that’s because their style was taken up by Hollywood (Michael Mann in particular), pop videos, TV series & adverts. Suddenly everyone wanted the camera to circle the actors in dialogue scenes instead of cutting back and forth. And digital colour grading could push saturation levels beyond what was possible simply with film stock. A lot of these films would benefit from smart, sensitive remakes or at least digital remastering. It’s sad to see how fuzzy and woolly they look now. When they came out they were anything but.
This was common in the USA in films like Thief, One From The Heart, Blade Runner, etc - they never got grouped together as a subgenre or movement at the time. People now in more recent reviews try to call it neon noir.
I saw Diva with my father a year ago. I really want to see it again. It was one of those very inspirational movies that you dont reolize how good it is until few days later with some thought. Now it has inspired me to write my own stories. Love to see more of these films
I have totally lost count of the number of times I have watched Dive over the years. Saw it in the cinema when it first opened, and have been hooked ever since!!
As to the rape accusations, from wikipedia: "In February 2019, French prosecutors dropped the case against him, citing lack of evidence. In December 2021, a judge dismissed the case against Besson following a second investigation. The public prosecutor's office in Paris stated that "the investigations clearly establish that the criminal facts of rape were not committed, that the absence of consent of the civil party is not established and the existence of a constraint, threat, violence, is not characterized". In April 2022, Van Roy submitted a complaint against the magistrate in charge of the case. In June 2023, Besson was definitively cleared of all charges, following a ruling by the Court of Cassation, the highest judicial court in France. This ruling prevents Van Roy from suing him on the same charges in France or elsewhere in Europe."
Leon is one of my all-time favorites films. I recently watched John Cassavetes Gloria (1980) and was amazed at just how heavily Luc Besson borrowed from it. Leon is basically a remix of Gloria. To be honest, it's nearly a remake. I still love Leon but after seeing Gloria I definitely feel differently about it.
i guess Im asking randomly but does any of you know a method to log back into an instagram account?? I was stupid lost the login password. I would love any tips you can offer me!
@Julius Jaxxon I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site thru google and Im waiting for the hacking stuff now. I see it takes quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
thanks for the video! I watch Diva for the first time last night and didn't know anything about Cinema du Look, thanks for providing such great context to one of my favourite films I've seen this year
Great piece. I love the cinema du look films. And I'm glad you mentioned the sexual assault allegations against Besson. You've gained a new subscriber.
5:35 Besson moved to Hollywood Not at all, Besson continued to work with Gaumont on movies like Leon, and The Fifth Element, he then created his own production company, Europa Corp, with which he produced his next movies like Lucy and Valerian. Luc Besson has never worked for Hollywood, and he never made an American movie.
Not too sure about the links you are making connecting the three directors. Apart from a greater attention to cinematography design, to me Carax is more an heir of Godard and older B&W films, while Besson tries to copy Asian cinema, and Beneix is more of a guy whose esthetics was coming from advertising.
@@sadie159 Good point, I hadn't thought about that. To be fair, french cinema has always been more relaxed about sexual politics. They have many films in which sex with a minor is not an issue. Even the movie Leon (made by a french director) which was very successful internationally, was about the love between a 12 year old girl and a grown man.
He is a French Tarantino. They both are too binary for me, with not enough nuance, too much excess and unrealistic scenarios where I can't relate to nor root for the protagonist. It's just "popcorn cinema", nothing more. My reference are Barry Lyndon, Blade Runner, 400 blows and Italian neorealism. I prefer Bertolucci and Kubrick.
@@AdAstra78 Leon is actually not that bad, but still, too violent for me and I can't really relate to any of the characters to find an interest. I like "The square" by Ruben Ostlund or "Manathan" by Woody allen.... it's quite far from anything that Luc Besson has done. Mr Besson lacked a qualitative formal academic education during his formative years in my opinion.
@@jeandubois8810 I wouldn't say Leon is necessarily 'high art', but there's a very interesting subtext going on nonetheless. There is a fair bit of depth. It's certainly not vapid 'action cinema'. I'm in agreement with you regarding. 'Manhatten' and, to a lesser extent, 'The Square' though, for sure. The latter of which I felt had some exceptional moments but ultimately wasn't greater than the sum of its parts. Unfortunately, the director's latest film 'Triangle of Sadness' didn't work for me AT all. Which I'm still annoyed about as I'd been really looking forward to it.
You don't seem to understand the meaning of either genre. Directors such as Kurosawa, Truffaut, Fellini, Bergman and Lynch were all film makers from the art cinema movement, and helped expand the possibilities of film as an art form. Their narrative, visual style and thematic content are unmatched, especially compared to commercial directors.
I watched Les amants du pont neuf(the lovers on the bridge) just out of curiosity and instantly fell in love with the style! Seriously those were one of the best films in the history of cinema.
Its been a favorite of mine since childhood
Seeing it back then was even more magical
Not bad but quite a few errors and omissions. Firstly, it’s impossible now to recreate the impact these films made on younger people at the time. They blew away everything that had come before especially in terms of what was considered worthy: slow build up, grimy realism, pedestrian values. These films were gorgeous to look at and edited for impact & pace in a completely new way. With sly humour and above all, attitude. Their biggest influence were the underground bandes dessinés from the 1980s which culminated in commercial compilations like Metal Hurlant. Worth also mentioning other non-French directors were doing similar things - such as Run Lola Run.
Nowadays they just seem very dated but that’s because their style was taken up by Hollywood (Michael Mann in particular), pop videos, TV series & adverts. Suddenly everyone wanted the camera to circle the actors in dialogue scenes instead of cutting back and forth. And digital colour grading could push saturation levels beyond what was possible simply with film stock. A lot of these films would benefit from smart, sensitive remakes or at least digital remastering. It’s sad to see how fuzzy and woolly they look now. When they came out they were anything but.
This was common in the USA in films like Thief, One From The Heart, Blade Runner, etc - they never got grouped together as a subgenre or movement at the time. People now in more recent reviews try to call it neon noir.
I saw Diva with my father a year ago. I really want to see it again. It was one of those very inspirational movies that you dont reolize how good it is until few days later with some thought. Now it has inspired me to write my own stories. Love to see more of these films
I have totally lost count of the number of times I have watched Dive over the years. Saw it in the cinema when it first opened, and have been hooked ever since!!
@@em-dashman4404 Its a real inspiration to my writing! I love the Zen scene
Zulawski also implemented cinema du look with almost all of his 80’s output.
As to the rape accusations, from wikipedia: "In February 2019, French prosecutors dropped the case against him, citing lack of evidence. In December 2021, a judge dismissed the case against Besson following a second investigation. The public prosecutor's office in Paris stated that "the investigations clearly establish that the criminal facts of rape were not committed, that the absence of consent of the civil party is not established and the existence of a constraint, threat, violence, is not characterized". In April 2022, Van Roy submitted a complaint against the magistrate in charge of the case. In June 2023, Besson was definitively cleared of all charges, following a ruling by the Court of Cassation, the highest judicial court in France. This ruling prevents Van Roy from suing him on the same charges in France or elsewhere in Europe."
Never even heard of it. I want to start a cinematic movement
Let’s do it!
Leon is one of my all-time favorites films. I recently watched John Cassavetes Gloria (1980) and was amazed at just how heavily Luc Besson borrowed from it. Leon is basically a remix of Gloria. To be honest, it's nearly a remake. I still love Leon but after seeing Gloria I definitely feel differently about it.
RIP JJ Beneix
its pronounced Ni ta
Thank you! That was painful to listen to.
Amazing video. These films often feel indulgent in the best way. Love em.
i guess Im asking randomly but does any of you know a method to log back into an instagram account??
I was stupid lost the login password. I would love any tips you can offer me!
@Gage Adrien Instablaster =)
@Julius Jaxxon I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site thru google and Im waiting for the hacking stuff now.
I see it takes quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Julius Jaxxon It worked and I now got access to my account again. I'm so happy:D
Thank you so much, you saved my account!
@Gage Adrien You are welcome :)
thanks for the video! I watch Diva for the first time last night and didn't know anything about Cinema du Look, thanks for providing such great context to one of my favourite films I've seen this year
Great piece. I love the cinema du look films. And I'm glad you mentioned the sexual assault allegations against Besson. You've gained a new subscriber.
5:35 Besson moved to Hollywood
Not at all, Besson continued to work with Gaumont on movies like Leon, and The Fifth Element, he then created his own production company, Europa Corp, with which he produced his next movies like Lucy and Valerian.
Luc Besson has never worked for Hollywood, and he never made an American movie.
In "Trent sept degree la Matin..."
Okay buddy we get it.
my two favorite movies are directed by French men: Besson and Gondry
Who wrote them?
oddly I see how this influenced Chungking Express
I watch all of them and love it
Thanks Gee
Is the room shown at 1:12 from 'boy meets girl'?
Merci pour l’analyse, mais non merci
Utterly ignorant comment about "monthly mood swings". Beneix was being ironic about those with chauvanistic attitudes.
Not too sure about the links you are making connecting the three directors. Apart from a greater attention to cinematography design, to me Carax is more an heir of Godard and older B&W films, while Besson tries to copy Asian cinema, and Beneix is more of a guy whose esthetics was coming from advertising.
Great video. Do you have a favourite Cinema Du Look film?
3:55 what aspects of the sexual politcs of these films has aged poorly? Would love to hear more about that, if anyone understood better what he meant.
What I think of is the age gap between betty and zorg, the woman who sexually assaulted zorg, and zorg groping betty while unconscious in the hospital
@@sadie159 Good point, I hadn't thought about that. To be fair, french cinema has always been more relaxed about sexual politics. They have many films in which sex with a minor is not an issue. Even the movie Leon (made by a french director) which was very successful internationally, was about the love between a 12 year old girl and a grown man.
Luc Besson is the man. I haven’t seen one of his movies I didn’t like
He is a French Tarantino. They both are too binary for me, with not enough nuance, too much excess and unrealistic scenarios where I can't relate to nor root for the protagonist. It's just "popcorn cinema", nothing more. My reference are Barry Lyndon, Blade Runner, 400 blows and Italian neorealism. I prefer Bertolucci and Kubrick.
@@jeandubois8810 Leon is 'popcorn cinema'...(?) Very much beg to differ.
@@AdAstra78 Leon is actually not that bad, but still, too violent for me and I can't really relate to any of the characters to find an interest. I like "The square" by Ruben Ostlund or "Manathan" by Woody allen.... it's quite far from anything that Luc Besson has done. Mr Besson lacked a qualitative formal academic education during his formative years in my opinion.
@@jeandubois8810 I wouldn't say Leon is necessarily 'high art', but there's a very interesting subtext going on nonetheless. There is a fair bit of depth. It's certainly not vapid 'action cinema'.
I'm in agreement with you regarding. 'Manhatten' and, to a lesser extent, 'The Square' though, for sure. The latter of which I felt had some exceptional moments but ultimately wasn't greater than the sum of its parts. Unfortunately, the director's latest film 'Triangle of Sadness' didn't work for me AT all. Which I'm still annoyed about as I'd been really looking forward to it.
@@AdAstra78 Same, I found "Triangle of Sadness" very disappointing, the first 20 min of the film starts well but all the rest is nonsensical to me.
lomejor
Leos Carax est Dieu
Like all art cinema, its all really nothing more than high brow porn
That’s awesome
@@bigwilliestyle8643 Brilliant response!
You don't seem to understand the meaning of either genre. Directors such as Kurosawa, Truffaut, Fellini, Bergman and Lynch were all film makers from the art cinema movement, and helped expand the possibilities of film as an art form. Their narrative, visual style and thematic content are unmatched, especially compared to commercial directors.